428 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTELY. 



Lave, as we have seen, to go to the New World. To find neai-er allies 

 of the kangaroo, we must go to the 7iewest world, Australia ; neicest 

 because, if America merited the title of neio from its new natural pro- 

 ductions as well as its new discovery, Australia may well claim the 

 superlative epithet on both accounts. We have found an indication, 

 in the name Botany Bay, of the interest excited in the mind of Sir 

 Joseph Banks by the new plants as well as by the new animals of 

 Australia. And, indeed, its plants and animals do differ far more 

 from those of the New World (America) than do those of America 

 from those of the Old World. 



Marsupials, in fact, are separated off from the rest of their class 

 from the great bulk of mammals the MonodelpMa no less by 

 their geographical limits than by their peculiarities of anatomical 

 structure. 



And these geographical limits are at the same time the limits of 

 many groups of animals and plants, so that we have an animal popu- 

 lation (or fauna) and a vegetable population (or flora) which are char- 

 acteristic of what is called tlie Australian region the Australian 

 region^ because the Australian forms of life are spread not only over 

 Australia and Tasmania, but over New Guinea and the Moluccas, ex- 

 tending as far northwest as the island of LomhoTc, while marsupials 

 themselves extend to Timor. 



In India, the Malay Peninsula, and the great islands of the Indian 

 Archipelago, we have another and a very different fauna and flora 

 those, namely, of the Indian region, and Indian forms of life extend 

 downward southeast as far as the island of Bali. Now, Bali is sepa- 

 rated from Lombok by a strait of but fifteen miles in width. But that 

 little channel is the boundary-line between these two great regions 

 the Australian and the Indian. The great Indian fauna advances to 

 its western margin, while the Australian fauna stops short at its 

 eastern margin. 



The zoological line of demarkation which passes through these 

 straits is called " Wallace's line," because its discovery is due to the 

 labors of that illustrious naturalist, that courageous, persevering ex- 

 plorer, and most trustworthy observer, Alfred Wallace, a perusal of 

 whose works I cordially recommend to my readers, since the charm 

 of their style is as remarkable as is the sterling value of their contents. 

 Mr. Wallace pointed out that not only as regards beasts (with which 

 we are concerned to-day), but that also as z-egards birds, these regions 

 are sharply limited. "Australia has," he says, "no woodpeckers, no 

 pheasants families which exist in every other part of the world ; but 

 instead of them it has the mound-making brush-turkeys, the honey- 

 suckers, the cockatoos, and the brush-tongued lories, which are found 

 nowhere else upon the globe." 



All these striking peculiarities are found also in those islands 

 which form the Australian division of the archipelago, while in those 



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